Saturday, October 07, 2006

What's Up At Lincoln Park?

UPDATE: I have heard from Ms. Eshoo and I have been asked to correct a few things that I received in the email below.

I have been authorized to say that Eshoo lost her job, but Karvelas lost all credibility - staff and students don't buy her the hiding behind the "budget cut" reason. (A good school leader would protect good people).

Here is the (edited for accuracy) text of an email I received today:

You may have heard that Lincoln Park HS Delegate Bernie Eshoo's position was cut last week. After 17 years of superior ratings, Bernie was escorted out of school.

"Save Mrs. Eshoo" signs, posters and tee-shirts are appearing around the school. Later last week the principal, feeling heat from staff and students, went on the intercom explaining to 2000+ people why she had to let her go! There will be an LSC meeting this Thursday, 10/10 at LPHS Room 103. The question period will begin at 5:30 p.m.
Why don't we show up at this LSC meeting to support Bernie?

She needs to know we are behind her 100% and the administration needs to know that they cannot get away with retaliating against union members for fighting for their rights and the rights of their members.

Hope to see you there:

October 10 @ 5:30 p.m. @ Lincoln Park HS, Room 103

Correct date for the Lincoln Park LSC meeting:
Thursday 10/12 @ 5:30
Sorry for the confusion.


Your thoughts?

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

You two guys need to brush up on some of the details of our current contract. Principals are allowed to "redefine" positions as they choose, basically giving them more power than you know. If the principal claims that there is a "need" for say, a math teacher instead of the librarian, he or she can do it. It's not easy but it can be done. I would suspect that the woman in question had been on that principal's "list" for some time and she was prepared to make this move on her. Tenure in this case doesn't matter, it doesn't protect us. I'm not suggesting that any of this is acceptable, it's not, but it is possible for a principal to do this if they want to expend the effort and take the possible heat.

Also, let's please not pretend that the union reps at our schools do us much good. Of course, I'm sure that just like anywhere else in the system there are good ones, but there seems to be many more bad ones running around doing nothing, or pestering principals and teachers with their own personal agendas. I think an important issue the union needs to deal with asap is recruiting better reps for our schools. The apathy toward running to be a rep, voting for your rep, and to even care about union issues is at a critical point. If the membership really doesn't care and we have crummy, crabby reps as our voice we're doomed. The BOE will devour us, just like they're going to do very soon.

I've been reading some of the CPS realted blogs lately and it seems like there is a hole in each blogs knowledge of how things really work inside CPS and the individual school buildings. The reporting of the published news is great, and there are some people willing to share their opinions and insights, but this knowledge gap seems to stunt many of the conversations. You guys need a deep throat or something.

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous" is dead wrong. The "current contract" doesn't "let principals redefine positions as they choose".

Anonymous said...

Whether you think it is in the contract or not, which it is, principals can do this and they do.

Isabella and Victoria said...

I think this is about impressions, or points of view, rather than an encyclopedic knowledge of the powers of principals and contracts.

What happened at LPHS stirs membership. If for no other reason than they all feel a little less secure, a little more expendable than they did before.

These feelings, of course, do not encourage teachers to go the extra mile. Would you make sacrifices under those conditions?

Would you eat ramen for week so you could buy supplies for your class? I ask because I know people who have. But they acted in that way when they felt they were all in it together. Principals and staff.

All in it together.

Something like this happens and people's professional lives turn to bickering over contracts, powers of downtown, LSC's that are jokes, etc.

People rarely react to these events as unimportant.

They see themselves in those who have been (misused, exploited, picked on, pick an adjective) and less gets done.

If I were umpire I would call this game on leadership issues. Leadership is supposed to inspire and unite. Not degrade and demoralize.

Leadership inspires.

It gets people to give more than they thought they could.

If you worked at LPHS, would you be more inspired or less inspired by what happened there?

Anonymous said...

Great post Victor,

A school needs a librarian. High schools over 1,500 get two. The only thing a principal could do is use a librarian to fill another need. Meaning, the extra librarian could be used to be a programmer, dean, or even a classroom teacher. However, the person must be in a librarian position and meet the qualifications. If this principal closed the position, she can not hire anyone else for that position. I am also quite confident that she can't close a 210 library position. Other 210 positions could be redefined if there is a need, but you can't mess with a library position.

I will definitely make the trip to Lincoln Park with you on Friday. Bernie is a great dlegate who only wants what's best for teachers and students. Where is the union on this? Are they silent again because Bernie is not a UPC supporter? It seems this is how they choose who they will support. I had two other delegates tell me they joined UPC because they were told they will get no union assistance if they didn't.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone investigated with CPS or the current administration about this? It seems as though everyone is flying off the handle WITHOUT getting the facts straight. How do we know that Ms. Eshoo was "FIRED" and officially "ESCORTED" out? As an observer, I've noticed a great number of people jumping on the bandwagon to attack the current administration! (Namely, the principal.) And frankly, I'm repulsed.

Anonymous said...

To an ousider reading this it's clear that some of the people commenting on this don't know the facts on the ground at LPHS.

Anonymous said...

Get real.Any Principal can get rid of any teacher any time they feel like.I personally know teachers who were removed for being to black,to white, to pretty and for being a dancer.Here is one example.Take consuner education out
of social studies.Then place it in the business dept.and good bye dancer.Only the real stupid or lazy principals have a hard time.

Anonymous said...

given that a position needed to be cut, the principal chooses the position to cut. In most schools that means consolidating positions of those not directly involved in instruction as a librarian is. This would include deans of students, extra counselors, coordinators, and others out of the classroom doing administrative jobs. A person goes back into the classroom and a new hire goes to subbing.

No one cuts a long tenured person directly involved in the academic programs of the school.

No, this has to be retaliation for union activities within the school. I am sure all the teachers there now wonder how much grief they will have to take if they speak out against such an action. Non-tenured teachers will loose their jobs. Others in small programs will simply have their entire program eliminated to get rid of them.

At the very least, a principal who has been there only a few years should leave the school as it was found not demolish academic programs that took years to develop.

Some principals tend to view the union contract as a personal affront to their authority to run the school rather than as an agreement between CPS and the CTU outlining the rules that everyone will follow. It is not personal, it is not to be ignored, and it is definitely not something that any staff member should be pushed out of their job fo.

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